Online Survey (Tutorial Task 5)

You may now commence being surveyed.

Click here to take survey

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Update: A total of 5 people took my survey. In this survey I found that the majority of the people surveyed said they spend more than 6 hours online. Youtube and Facebook are the most visited sites for social networking needs, they relied Google as their web search engine and preferred Ebay as their purchasing sites. These results came to no surprise. 

Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Adapt or Die: Mentioned in Lecture 4 & Tutorial 5)

‘The Allegory of the Cave’ was an interesting concept that was brought up in the lecture. This allegory was essentially about the people living in a cave who were isolated from the outside world. These people were trapped and the only image they could see was shadows. One day, a cave-dweller released from the chains confining him and escaped to the outside world. It was there he saw many wonders (this relates to the cyber world). However when he returned to tell the others of his newly discovered findings, they refused to believe him, and labelled him as an outcast. This allegory reminded me of an article I read online about how companies like Blockbuster and Borders are currently in bankruptcy, because they couldn’t compete with the rise of the online market. Borders lost much of their revenue to Amazon (internet megastore) which sells the most e-books online and Blockbuster to Netflix, a highly successful web company that allows its users to view movies anytime anywhere, especially online. Like the people living in the cave, Blockbuster and Borders refused to evolve and merge into the online market. So needless to say, they got themselves in this unfortunate position and a substantial amount of debt. An example of Blockbuster’s supposed ignorance: Blockbuster declined partnership with the starting, baby company Netflix in 2002, who now dominates entertainment (movies, TV shows) in the virtual world. So in order to strive in business you must learn to adapt, because technology and the internet plays a major role on how this society operates. And as a race, we evolve overtime. In this sense, business becomes an extension of our humanity, as we are constantly trying to look for ways on improving ourselves and the lives of others. However, that being said, if major businesses decide to emerge to different types of markets, they might end up dominating the entire world, choose Google for example. Google has consistently extended it's market, even going as far as knowing someone's blood-type, thus being labelled the 'anti-Christ' -- since too much knowledge can be deemed dangerous.

References

Kreis, S. 2004, Plato: The Allegory of the Cave, viewed 17th August 2012 <http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html>

Themorningcall, 2011, Borders, Blockbuster lessons show businesses must evolve, viewed on the 17th of August 2012 < http://articles.mcall.com/2011-06-14/opinion/mc-ecommerce-schlossberg-yv-0615-20110614_1_netflix-blockbuster-borders>

Meadows, C. 2011, Borders and Blockbuster: two of a kind? Viewed on the 17th of August 2012 < http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/blockbuster-and-borders-two-of-a-kind/>

Herscher, P. 2011, “If Video killed the radio star, who killed Borders?” viewed on the 17th August 2011 < http://www.firstrain.com/marketmine/if-video-killed-the-radio-star%E2%80%A6who-killed-borders-2.html >

Cyberpunk Timeline!

Take note: This timeline took an awful lot of time, considering I didn't know the actual dates of certain events, plus it didn't include all the text I wrote for each date. I don't recommend using this site if you want to create simple timelines, because its tools are used to create elaborate timelines. Another issue I have with timetoast: if you don't know the exact date of something's release, the Timetoast system would automatically date it to the 17th of August 2012.
Cyberpunk Timeline via Timetoast

When Myspace dies Facebook rises (Tutorial 3: Task)

It's a known fact that Facebook currently dominates the social networking community. According to studies held in June 2012, Facebook has an estimation of 955 million users and it's also the 3rd largest U.S based web company with a value of 41 Billion $$$$. Myspace, a social networking site which is often compared to Facebook (by the media) is currently on a downward spiral, since Facebook's rise to prominence. The difference between these two networking sites is the customization of a user's profile. Myspace essentially encourages it's users to decorate and design a webpage that either reflects themselves or show how the users are incredibly inept at web coding (HTML & CSS). Whereas, facebook has more of a simple approach to social networking, enabling it's users to use various features of interactions (status update, poking, personal messaging, wall posting and commenting), thus the basis of it's appeal. I suppose overtime, people got sick of customizing their Myspace pages and decided to use a simple form of social networking. However, because of Facebook's constant updating and add placements (reeling in the dough), users, like myself are getting frustrated with the site. That being said, I predict Facebook, like it's predecessor (Myspace) before it, will soon plunge, as it constantly loses users everyday. Also, I heard Twitter is becoming popular that I'm actually considering to leave Facebook for Twitter!

References:

Thierry Le Magny, 2012,  Offical Facebook Stats: 955 Million monthly active users at the end of June 2012, 1 Billion soon..., viewed 12th August 2012, retrieved from <http://www.scoop.it/t/socil-media-health>

unknown author, 2012, Comparisons to Facebook & Myspace, viewed12th of August 2012,  <http://www.diffen.com/difference/Facebook_vs_MySpace>

surfnetkids.com, 2012, The Differences with Facebook & Myspace, accessed on the 12th of August 2012, <http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/safety/165/differences-between-myspace-and-facebook/>

Apple's Dominance in the Tech-World.

In the lecture, Steve talked about the establishment of Apple and it's dominance in the tech-world. Apple (established on April 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne) first launched it's first general purpose computer on 1978. This obviously sparked interest within the Tech-Geek circle, because of Apple's smart innovations to a personal computer. However this rise to tech-dominance died down in the 1990s when Apple launched the heavy, Macintosh Portable. It had being a failure in the Tech-market, it didn't not garner enough revenue to sustain it's production. After Macintosh portable, came a series of Apple failures and devastating attempts to regain revenue. It was not till 2001 Apple introduced the iPod (portable music player) and then iTunes in 2003, a online music store which enabled it's users to download music for 0.99c. This dominated the music market, as people began to purchase music online for cheap without the need to buy CDs. I know for a fact that I can't live without my iPod, since I carry it everywhere I go. So I praise Apple for this smart renovation in music.



The first iPod (launched in 2001)

 

The first Apple computer ($666.66?)

Bibliography

Glen Sanford, 2012, Apple History, accessed on the 10th August,  <http://www.apple-history.com/>

A Response to Questions Asked in Tutorial 2: Privacy

It's horrifying to know that our private lives are under threat of being exposed to the world, solely because of the information we store online. That goes by saying, nothing is ever erased, especially online. So when we desperately try to delete our old, embarrassing Bebo and Myspace accounts, it's actually not erased from the virtual world, thus will come back to haunt us. I can google my name right now and it'll come up with every post I've written online that I've (shamefully) included with my full name and all my old networking accounts from when I was 12. It's overwhelming at first and seen as a complete negative, since the prospect of someone finding this information can be rather daunting. However there are also some positive aspects, i.e purposely leaving information online about yourself is like leaving your legacy online. For someone who hasn't made an dramatic impact on the world (i.e. cured cancer), having bulks of information about themselves online enables future generations to access information about people and the generation before them. That being said, there are probably some embarrassing things online that you don't want anyone, let alone future generations to see! To conclude this response, we should try to avoid leaving too much personal information about ourselves online to avoid identity theft (which is a prominent issue in contemporary society. 

 

This site will give you tips on protecting your privacy on the internet.

References: 

babble.com, 2011, Is Your Personal & Private Information Safe Online?, viewed the 5th August 2012, <http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/personal-private-information-safe-online-203900463.html>